Susan Farbstein

Human rights lawyer on law’s ability to promote justice—and shape public understanding

Susan Farbstein smiles while standing outside in front of a building with columns and surrounding greenery, wearing a light blue blouse.

Susan Farbstein  |  Photograph by Jim harrison

“Why do some people get to make decisions about their lives, and other people don’t?” Susan Farbstein, J.D. ’04, clinical professor of law since 2008, first pondered the question after observing the stigma faced by patients visiting her father, a hematologist-oncologist who treated people with HIV and AIDS in the 1980s. Since then, she has continued to think about human dignity and autonomy—and how the law can promote them. After law school, Farbstein worked at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) in South Africa on projects seeking “accountability, broadly conceived” for apartheid-era abuses. “It’s not just about criminal accountability; it’s not just about who is guilty,” she says. “It’s also about what the survivor wants”: an apology, structural change, or an opportunity to tell her story. This survivor-centered conception of accountability has helped Farbstein see the law’s impacts beyond legal rulings, shaping people’s understandings of themselves and the underlying events. At Harvard, she leads the International Human Rights Clinic: a group of six faculty and about 30 students who are partnering with a Ukrainian human rights organization to consider how to build a case against Russia for war crimes. Farbstein educates students on human rights law, and also how best to approach such heavy work—by building resilience and avoiding burnout. She does so by returning to favorite hobbies from her California childhood: swimming (“my happy, quiet place”) and hiking with her family. The beliefs she held then continue to motivate her. “At the most basic level, the idea of human rights is that they’re something you’re entitled to by virtue of being human,” she says: “that all people should be able to lead a dignified life, and all people should be able to make choices for themselves about the life that they will lead.”

Read more articles by Nina Pasquini

You might also like

This Astronomer is Sounding a Warning on 'Space Junk'

As debris accumulates in low Earth orbit, the danger of destructive collisions continues to rise.

Isaac Kohlberg to Step Down as Head of Harvard Technology Development

Partnerships and licensing office could become more critical as funding cuts loom

A Space-Age Project for Harvard’s Plant Collection

Light-based analysis of botanical collections link plants to Earth’s changing climate.

Most popular

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

The Juggler’s Tale

A Dumbarton Oaks exhibition connects “an enchanted past” to the human condition.

“Do You Find That Reasonable?” Harvard Undergraduates Discuss a Changing University

A student panel grapples—civilly—with shifting policies and differing opinions.

Explore More From Current Issue

Nicolo Maestas in a grey suit and wearing glasses sits with her arms on a table

The Harvard health economist not afraid to get in the weeds

Illustration of a math students gathering, 1936, in Annanberg Hall, Memorial Hall

Including profundity and pretzels

A computer bank, hovering ove a city, with electric wires coming out from the bottom and attaching themselfs into the city

Utilities shift AI infrastructure costs onto consumers.